Abstract

General description of nonnegative waveforms up to second harmonic in terms of independent (unconstrained) parameters is provided. Three important subclasses of the class of nonnegative waveforms are also fully characterised: nonnegative waveforms with maximal amplitude of fundamental harmonic for prescribed amplitude of second harmonic, nonnegative waveforms with maximal coefficient of cosine part of fundamental harmonic for prescribed coefficients of second harmonic, and nonnegative waveforms with at least one zero. We prove that members of the first two subclasses have at least one zero; that is, they also belong to the third subclass. Nonnegative cosine waveforms up to second harmonic are also considered and characterised. A number of case studies of practical interest for power amplifier (PA) design, involving nonnegative waveforms up to second harmonic, are also considered.